Walking around the Lido here in Venice, one film dominates in terms of the number of posters. It isn't Aronofsky's
Black Swan. Nor is it Sofia Coppola's
Somewhere or, even, Ben Affleck's
The Town (although that film certainly has the biggest banners). Instead it is
La passione - one of the five Italian hopefuls for the Golden Lion, and probably the best chance for the trophy to remain on home soil. Directed by
Carlo Mazzacurati, La passione stars
Silvio Orlando as Gianni, a film-maker who hasn't completed a project in four years. When a flat he rents out in Tuscany suffers a major plumbing malfunction, destroying a historic fresco in an adjacent church, Gianni is forced by the local judge to direct the upcoming annual amateur production of the Passion of Christ. This is the set-up for a broad comedy that, if only in terms of the concept, feels like a mixture of
Waiting for Guffman and the Barry Levinson film
What Just Happened? It is full of in-jokes about movie-making and creativity, which I suppose is appropriate coming from the birth place of
8 1/2. Comedy comes from Orlando's central performance, as an artist in crisis, but also from a wonderful array of supporting actors who comprise the amateur troupe.
I don't think I got all the jokes, as the Italian audience members spent much of the film in that state of painful, uncontrollable laughter - often at things that, to me, didn't seem like jokes. I am chalking this up as being due to very locally specific references rather than my own dimwittedness (although I'm not ruling that out as a factor). As a result I don't imagine La passione will play too well outside of Italy. Which is a pity, because I could tell it was really something very good indeed. I think the element I enjoyed most was Gianni's spur of the moment improvised film ideas (all tired clichés) made up in order to placate his producer. But it is full of nice little observations, for things as simple as trying to get mobile phone signal in a small village. The last fifteen minutes see an unexpected shift in mood and tone, as the irreverent view the film has taken towards the Passion play is dislodged by a feeling of immense profundity. But even at its most earnest, La passione is probably one of the most pure, unabashed joys of the festival so far. John Woos REIGN OF ASSASSINS OVSYANKI (Silent Souls) SOMEWHERE; Every bit as poignant as LOST IN TRANSLATION, if not quite as fresh. BLACK SWAN; A rare and beautiful thing a perfect movie LA PECORA NERA (The Black Sheep) MIRAL; So contrived, so false, so cravenly seeking out approval that it lacks impact HAPPY FEW; the best, and funniest film about sex since HUMPDAY NORWEGIAN WOOD; A handsomely made failure LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN SHOWTIME; Quirky Chinese comedy thats STEP UP/STREETDANCE with Time Travel! BLACK SWAN best film of the year left me devastated, excited, tense and emotionally drained